Shop Talk Blog

Every rental return is a chance to catch a final drive problem while it's still small. Once the machine goes back out, you're relying on the next renter, who doesn't know the machine's history, to notice a slow leak or a new noise. Usually they don't, until the machine stops on their job.

A short final drive check at check-in costs a few minutes of a technician's time. Skipping it can mean an emergency service call, a machine off rent, and an unhappy customer. Here's a practical check-in routine for compact track loaders, skid steers, and mini excavators from Bobcat, Kubota, John Deere, and other brands.

Why Final Drives Deserve Their Own Line on the Check-In Sheet

The final drive takes everything a renter does. That includes overloading, counter-rotating on concrete, running with packed tracks, and operating in mud and standing water. Renters don't own the machine, so they rarely report early warning signs.

In our experience, most premature final drive failures trace back to a few maintenance items: a clogged case drain filter, low gear oil, or gear oil that wasn't changed often enough. We cover this in Maintaining a Bobcat Final Drive. All three can be caught on a regular schedule, and a rental yard's check-in process is the natural place for that schedule.

The 10-Minute Final Drive Check-In

1. Clean before you look

Pressure-wash or scrape the final drive area first. Packed mud hides leaks, and it gets into the gear housing when you open the fill plugs -- and an excessive build up can even force the face seals apart. Also clean around the plugs before you open anything.

Want to learn something new about Kubota? Here are some cool things our research uncovered, from cholera to steel rolling mills.

Here are a few other blog posts you might find of interest:

• Autopsy: Kubota KX71-3 Final Drive
• Kubota Final Drives and Stripped Drive Shafts
• CTLs, SSLs, and Compact Utility Tractors: Which is Best?

We’ve talked before about compact equipment in the military. But in this Shop Talk Blog post, we want to look at skids steers and compact track loaders, mainly focusing on how they are used, how they are sometimes transported, and what manufacturers are most popular.

Republic of Singapore Air Force Airmen perform sling load operations at the Mystic drop zone, hoisting a Bobcat S450 skid steer loader with an RSAF CH-47 D Chinook helicopter in support of the Golden Coyote training exercise at the South Dakota National Guard West Camp Rapid training facility, Rapid City, S.D., June 14, 2016. The Golden Coyote exercise is a three-phase, scenario-driven exercise conducted in the Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming, which enables commanders to focus on mission essential task requirements, warrior tasks and battle drills. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Kristen Root/Released)

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The drive shaft in your final drive motor is used to transfer torque, power and rotational motion. If the drive shaft on a hydraulic motor is going to fail, it will most likely be the result of worn out splines. In this Shop Talk Blog post, we are going to talk about drive shafts, couplers, and gear splines -- and how they can affect your final drive motor performance.

If your tracks don't move that easily anymore or your machine starts to steer to one side, it could be that your gear teeth on your drive shaft have been worn down; this is what is known as a "stripped drive shaft". One of the most common problems found on Kubota and Hy-Dash final drives involves a stripped drive shaft. In this Shop Talk Blog post, you’ll learn how to identify a few symptoms of a stripped drive shaft, what can be done about it, and how to prevent it from happening to your final drive.

The Kubota KX71-3 is a powerful compact excavator with a reputation for reliability. Find out what we discovered when we “autopsied” a final drive taken from a Kubota KX71-3 -- you might be surprised at what took down this final drive motor!